Organizing for global social change: Toward a global integrity ethi

Global social change organizations (GSCO's) represent an emergent organizational form with principles of organizing which distinguish them from other types of organizations. With people-centered paradigms of service and technologies of empowerment, they engage in innovative processes of transnational cooperation, organizing to bridge traditional barriers in the service of a global imperative. As value-rational organizations, they emphasize normative values in the realm of moral choice concerning the common good as opposed to maximization of self-interest. Case studies were conducted of the Institute for Cultural Affairs, the International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War, The Nature Conservancy (Latin America Division), and The Hunger Project as prototypes for a long-term research program to focus on GSCO's and the ways in which they organize to foster social change. Appreciative Inquiry was used in the collection of data and preparation of cases, a method which highlights those "life-giving" factors which lend distinctive competence and vitality to each organization.;The central hypothesis of this research is that GSCO's have a unique underlying rationality of service as distinct from more traditional organizing rationalities which undergird many modern corporations. An ethos of global integrity, a value-rational stance toward defining the common good in terms of long term stewardship for global sustainability, underlies their effort. As a result, more bureaucratic and rational-legal forms of organizing are inappropriate. This research proposes an alternative model by which GSCO's organize to enact this ethos which includes key principles of alignment, attunement, affirmation, authenticity and action, each suggesting outcomes for individuals and the organization as a whole. This model was initially derived from analysis of the four case studies, and data from each organization was then tested against the model as a basis for comparison and contrast. In all but one instance, the GSCO's were found to be moderate to strong on key organizing principles. The researcher concludes with a discussion of the global integrity ethic as a basis for moral discourse about long-term obligations to distant others and implications of the global integrity ethic for future research, education, management and organizational development.